John Bolch on Family Lore relates the sad tale of local (Kent) firms who are shedding staff by the dozen due to the property slump. And following their conveyancing business may well be their whole business. Anecdotal evidence is that HIPs are as much to blame as the sub-prime crisis.
Who agrees? Who disagrees? Who cares? We don’t know, as there are no active conveyancer blawgers. The only one I know of, Wearyconveyancer, is so weary that he can manage a post only every couple of months and so disillusioned that he is seeking to retire before the HIPs shit the fan.
In search of conveyancing blawgers I searched with Google blog search for conveyancing HIPs solicitors and was excited to find Digital Conveyancing Users Group by Brett Hayton, a property and conveyancing lawyer. Interesting, but unfortunately Australian, so not wholly in tune – if not upside-down.
Another prominent result was from News on the Block – latest news, opinion, comment and debate on flats, tenant legislation and landlord law from Nicolas Shulman. So, not on topic.
No conveyancer blawgers, but what was interesting was to find a few law firm news blogs ranking high in the search results:
Daltons Solicitors News Blog
Hart Reade Solicitors Latest News
Ranson Houghton News
Commendable if unexciting “blogs”, but going to show it’s worth blogging your news just for the Google juice.
Back to the question: Why no conveyancer blawgers? If you blog mainly or prominently on matters conveyancing, or have a view on the impact of the conveyancing slump on the profession, comment here or on John’s blog. We want to know.
It’s not just Kent, Nick. I heard today of a Firm in London laying off 15.
I meant to comment on John’s original post (and belatedly will) but my London firm so far isn’t reporting problems. That said, there are plenty of rumours about other, more conveyancing heavy, firms in the area. John is absolutely right that for many small to medium firms, conveyancing is, or was, a steady and therefore essential income stream.
Personally, given that I am about to do my non-contentious seat, in, gulp, conveyancing, I would be quite keen to see the whole sector vanish.
As to the lack of blogging conveyancers: At the risk of undue stereotyping, I am somehow not surprised…
I have tried to redress the balance with th elack of conveyancing blogs